This page documents how I built a "Go Box" portable amateur radio station.
It's my hope that this will give you some ideas to build your own Go Box.
Note this is a long page with a lot of pictures, and may take a while to load!

My main objectives in this project were to put together a portable HF
station. I plan to use this station for fun (contesting, field day,
vacation use, etc.), as well as have it available to support emergency services
should the need arise. My design goals included the following:

I wanted it to be "plug-and-play", meaning that basically the only
things needed to get it operational would be to plug in an antenna and power
source.

I wanted it to be functional on all HF bands and modes.

I wanted modern equipment including a sound card interface.

I wanted it to be compact, but also large enough to comfortably operate
for extended periods of time.

I wanted the equipment to be easily accessible rather than bolted
directly to the box.

Some things that were NOT important to me (but may be very important to you
when you build yours!) included:

Weight was not a major concern - I don't plan to take this backpacking
(I have an FT-817 QRP rig that fills that need just fine).

I did not try to integrate a battery into this box. The battery
(or AC power supply) will be separate.

I didn't care about keeping the box waterproof, although it would not
have been terribly difficult to do so.

I was not concerned with including a VHF or UHF transceiver in the
design - my focus for this box is on HF.

I was not interested in making this a QRP rig, or challenging myself by
making it as small as possible.

The
first thing I did was to order an orange ammo box. The box I used was an
MTM Case-Gard "SPUD7" which I ordered from AmmoBoxes.com for about $35.
You can find smaller ones at local sporting goods stores, but the SPUD7 is big
and nicely constructed.

My plan was to build a shelf inside the box to hold the gear.

The
box is not totally square (it's narrower at the bottom), so I used cardboard to
cut a template that fit inside the box where I planned to put the shelf (that
was much easier than trying to jam a ruler inside to take measurements).

I
bought a piece of shelving from Lowe's for about $10 and used the template to
mark the cut lines. The shelving I used has one edge that is finished for
a nicer appearance, but a cheaper piece of wood, pressboard, or scrap wood could
also be used to save a few dollars.

Here's
a quick test to make sure the shelf fits properly. Note the shelf is not
quite as deep as the box; this actually works out well. Although you can't
tell from this picture, the back of the shelf is actually about 1" away from the
back of the box to leave room for cables.

Next
I drilled some holes along the sides and used screws to connect some legs to the
shelf.

To
make the legs more stable, I added some small brackets.

The
legs were sized to cause the shelf to sit at roughly the middle of the box.

Note that I could also have simply screwed the shelf directly into the box
and not used the legs. I chose to make the shelf this way because it makes
it very easy to slide the shelf in and out of the box, which makes it very easy
to work on the gear that will be attached to the shelf. Also, although the
plastic on the box is heavy duty, it may not be strong enough to hold a lot of
heavy gear for long periods of time.

The
first thing I mounted to the shelf was the HF rig itself. I marked off
holes using the mounting bracket as a template. Note I positioned it to
the side to leave room for other accessories later.

I'm
not one of those guys who can rattle off drill bit and screw sizes, so I used an
Ace hardware drill bit gauge to match them up.

Before
mounting the radio's bracket, I used double-sided tape to attach a tiny sound
card interface to it.

The interface I chose is the microHAM USB II. This interface will allow
me to easily use a laptop computer to work digital modes like RTTY and PSK31.
Its very small size makes it a great choice for a Go Box. Other small
interfaces that could be used include the Rascal, Rigblaster, etc., or you could
build your own.

Note that the microHAM USB II uses jumpers to match to specific radios, so I
had to open it up and change them before finishing the mounting.

Here
is the radio mounted to the shelf. Note the squeezed-in MicroHam USB
Interface II sound card interface between the rig and the shelf.

I chose a Yaesu FT-897D for the rig. It's a great choice for a portable
radio but there are plenty of others that could be used in this type of setup -
for example, an Icom 706. The '897 will cover VHF and UHF also, but that
is not my primary purpose.

Next
I added an MFJ-281 external speaker. I feel that having a front-firing
speaker is important, especially if the station ends up being used in a noisy
Emcomm environment.

Station
grounding is an important but often overlooked item in many portable setups.
I decided to add a grounding bus, which will make it very easy to ground
components if I make changes in the future (and as every ham knows, we are
always changing our stations!)

Note that for this picture I removed the radio temporarily.

I plan to use this radio with various antennas, so a tuner was a must.
Although the '897 can accommodate an accessory autotuner, I prefer a manual
tuner that allows me to manage the settings myself. Also, very small
tuning units are available but my preference is a slightly larger tuner that
provides multiple options.

I chose the MFJ-941E, which I bought for $75 at the Dayton hamfest.
This tuner has overlapping forward and reflected wattmeters, something I
consider a real plus; it also has multiple inputs including balanced line.
The only downside is that it's large; if I had used a smaller tuner, I might
have been able to fit a separate VHF/UHF FM transceiver in the same box.

Note that the tuner does not have a mounting bracket, so I devised my own out
of some aluminum strip that I had from some other project. You could leave
things loose in the box, but I like to have them locked down for transport.

I prepared ground straps for the radio and the tuner. I may try to
ground the other components eventually.

This is what the backside looked like at this point. Note the mess of
cables- the largest cable is for the sound card interface (I think the cables
are bigger than the unit itself!).

Sharp-eyed viewers may notice that the backside of the legs seems to have
grown a bit. I added a couple of strips of wood to create a gap between
the shelf unit and the back of the box, to avoid cable crunching during
transport. In hindsight it would have been better to have cut the wood
that way in the first place!

My next step was to add a power distribution panel. I chose to use a
RIGrunner 4005 from West Mountain Radio. This block uses Anderson
PowerPole connectors and will allow me to transfer power to up to 5 devices, and
I especially like the simple fusing system. Of course a simpler and/or
cheaper method could be devised, but since PowerPoles are the emcomm standard
and are easy to use I decided to go with this system.

The RIGrunner 4005 can take its input from a battery, or from a 13.8Vdc power
supply.

Since manufactures don't provide power cables with pre-installed PowerPole
connectors, I had to cut the '897's power cord and put the PowerPoles on.
Note that since my distribution panel is very close to the radio, I cut the
cable very short.

A crimping tool is not mandatory, but if you're going to do a lot of
PowerPoles, I highly recommend it.

I'm hoping to really pound out the QSO's with this station, which will
generate some heat. Note that the shelf can be slid out of the box, or the
station can remain in the box while operational (I've cut a hole in the bottom
of the box for antenna feedline and power).

However, I decided that additional cooling would be desirable, so I purchased
a 12V fan from SWS Electronics for about $5 and mounted it to the back side of
the shelf. I added PowerPoles so it can run from the distribution panel.
I suppose one could get fancy and add a switch to turn it on and off, or even
add a temperature sensor for automatic turn on when it starts to get hot.
I consider the fan to be cheap equipment insurance.

Don't pay attention to the ugly homemade aluminum mounting strips...

The SPUD7 box has a small compartment on the lid that can be used to bring
along some accessories.

And
here is the "Final" product (at least until I decide to change something).

The station can be operated in this position, or the whole shelf can slide
out and the system operated independently from the box.

The whole thing does weigh quite a bit, but it can easily be carried by the
handle on the lid of the box without risk of damage.

I will probably mount a dual clock (local/UTC). The MFJ clock shown in
this picture obviously is not keeping time correctly so it will likely be
replaced.

My next project may very well be setting up a VHF/UHF Go Box, which will
probably be in a smaller container.

I would really like to hear from others who have built, or are considering
building, their own Go Box. There are plenty of great ideas out there that
we can experiment with.